Training and communication with the cardholder are more important than technical and control issues when it comes to implementing self-service applications for corporate card program management, a recent study by GE Capital Financial shows. Sixty-six percent of the respondents to the survey, conducted in July and August of this year, indicated that they are now using or will be implementing a self-service application within the year. The features program administrators use most in a self-service application are viewing, downloading, and printing transactions – nearly 75 percent of the respondents currently use or plan to use these functions. The administrators also expressed strong interest in being able to suspend and close accounts, change address information, and maintain credit limits. “A system rich in features is important, but what the study tells us is that staff and cardholder training and communication are the keys. Implementing a self-service application is more than a technical exercise, it’s a change management opportunity,” said Jeffery Dye, president, GE Capital Financial Inc., the corporate card unit of GE Card Services. In response to the findings of the study, GE Capital has released a communication toolkit to make it easier for program administrators to educate their cardholders on the features of GE NetService, GE Capital’s Internet-based self-service application.